Leviticus 25:32

Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites,.... The six cities of refuge, and forty two others; these and the houses in them are excepted from the above law, and only they; not such as they might purchase elsewhere; wherefore it follows:

and the houses of the cities of their possession; which were in cities possessed by them, and which was their possession, and given them as such:

may the Levites redeem at any time; they were not restrained to a year, as houses in walled towns, but they might redeem them as they pleased or could; and if they did not redeem them within the year, they might redeem them afterwards, even years after, and any time before the year of jubilee; so it is said in the Misnah (l) the priests and the Levites sell always, and they redeem always, as it is said, Lev 25:32; on which one of the commentators says (m) "they sell always", not as the Israelites, who cannot sell less than two years before the jubilee; but the Levites can sell near the jubilee: "and they redeem always"; if they sell houses in walled cities, they are not confirmed at the end of the year, as the houses of Israelites; and if they sell fields, it is not necessary they should remain in the hands of the buyer two years, but they may redeem them immediately if they will: this redemption was peculiar to the Levites; for if an Israelite has an inheritance from his father's mother, a Levite, he might not redeem according to the manner Levites did, but according to Israelites; and so a Levite that inherited from his father's mother, an Israelite, was obliged to redeem as an Israelite and not as a Levite (n); for this perpetual redemption respected only houses that were in the cities of the Levites.

(l) Eracin, c. 9. sect. 8. (m) Bartenora in ib. (n) Misn. Eracin, c. 9. sect. 8.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Lev 25:32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, [and] the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.

Ver. 32. May the Levites redeem at any time.] They were ever counted privileged persons: and it was but reason. See Lev 25:33-34.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25:32-34 The tribe of Levi could not inherit tribal territory because, as the priestly tribe, they were scattered throughout the land (Deut 18:1; see Gen 49:5-7; Num 35:1-8; Josh 21:1-42). The Levites could inherit only certain cities and the pasturelands surrounding them (Num 35:2). Therefore, they were an exception to the rules regarding land ownership, and their meager holdings were carefully protected. Their houses could be redeemed even in walled cities, and the pasturelands outside their towns could not be sold.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hebrew, forever.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, &c.--The Levites, having no possessions but their towns and their houses, the law conferred on them the same privileges that were granted to the lands of the other Israelites. A certain portion of the lands surrounding the Levitical cities was appropriated to them for the pasturage of their cattle and flocks (Num 35:4-5). This was a permanent endowment for the support of the ministry and could not be alienated for any time. The Levites, however, were at liberty to make exchanges among themselves; and a priest might sell his house, garden, and right of pasture to another priest, but not to an Israelite of another tribe (Jer 41:7-9).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 32. The cities of the Levites] The law in this and the following verses was also a very wise one. A Levite could not ultimately sell his house: if sold he could redeem it at any time tn the interim between the two jubilees; but if not redeemed, it must go out at the following jubilee. And why? "Because Moses framed his laws so much in favour of the priesthood, that they had peculiar privileges?" &c. Just the reverse: they were so far from being peculiarly favoured that they had no inheritance in Israel, only their cities, to dwell in: and because their houses in these cities were the whole that they could call their own, therefore these houses could not be ultimately alienated. All that they had to live on besides was from that most precarious source of support, the freewill-offerings of the people, which depended on the prevalence of pure religion in the land.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(32) Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses.—Better, And as to the cities of the Levites, the houses, that is, the houses which belong to the Levites, in the forty-eight cities given to them (see Num_35:1-8; Jos_21:1-3), are to be exempt from this general law of house property.

May the Levites redeem at any time.—Having the same value to the Levites as landed property has to the other tribes, these houses are to be subject to the jubile laws for fields, and hence may be redeemed at any time.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rather, And concerning the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, etc. If one of the Levites redeems a house in the city, etc. The meaning appears to be, if a Levite redeemed a house which had been sold to a person of a different tribe by another Levite, it was to revert in the Jubilee to the latter Levite as its original possessor. The purchaser of a Levite’s house was in fact only in the condition of a tenant at will, while the fields attached to the Levitical cities could never be alienated, even for a time.

For the application of the law of Jubilee to lands dedicated to the service of the sanctuary, see Lev 27:16-25.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

32. The Levites may redeem — Here is the first hint of the mode of maintaining the Levites in cities. This exception to the statute concerning walled cities is grounded on the fact that the Levites, if their houses could be irredeemably sold, might become utterly homeless, since they had no landed inheritance, but only city houses. Jehovah is not honored by a mendicant ministry.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 32-34. The houses of the Levites are, by an exception, subject to the law of jubilee. They constituted the share of the national property which was assigned to the tribe of Levi, and so far stood in the same relation to them as the land did to the other tribes. They therefore returned to the original possessor or his representative in the year of jubilee, and might at any earlier time be redeemed. The words, Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, should rather be rendered, But in respect to the cities of the Levites. There is a difficulty also as to the translation of the clause, And if a man purchase of the Levites, for the word rendered purchase menus elsewhere redeem; but here the Authorized Version would seem to be correct. The sense that it gives is that if any one bought a house of the Levites, he had to render it back in the year of jubilee, just as though it had been land. On the other hand, the land belonging to the Levites, in the suburbs of the Levitical cities, which was used for the pasturage of the flocks of the Levites, could not be sold except to a Levite, and therefore no question between the Levites and members of the other tribes could arise regarding it. The phrase, the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, must be understood, by a hendiadys, to mean, the house that was sold in the city of his possession (see Gesenius, "Lex.," s.v. l i.b.).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

וערי הלוים THE CITIES OF THE LEVITES… [MAY BE REDEEMED AT ANY TIME] — This refers only to the forty-eight cities which had been given to them (cf. Numbers 35:6. 7). (But if the Levites built another city for themselves, or if a Levite possesses a house in a city inhabited by Israelites these do not come under this law).

גאלת עולם [THE LEVITES SHALL HAVE] THE RIGHT OF REDEMPTION AT ANY TIME — This means that they (Levites) may redeem at once — even before the end of two years — if they sold a field of those fields which had been given to them within the two thousand cubits round about the cities (cf. Numbers 25:5) (whilst an ordinary Israelite’s field must remain at least two years in the hand of the purchaser), or if they sold “a house in a city which has a wall” they may redeem it at any time and it does not become irredeemable at the end of one year (as is the case with such houses belonging to Israelites; cf. v. 30) (Arakhin 33b).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.